New Escort Map: Rialto
Rialto was home to Talon agent Antonio Bartalotti’s sprawling estate and the backdrop to the infamous “Venice Incident,” a turning point for Overwatch and Talon. The Italian government has taken great steps to preserve Venice, and the results are striking. Tourists visiting this picturesque town can sample the regional cuisine, enjoy a relaxing gondola ride, visit Galleria D’arte Omnica, or simply take in the sights with a stroll along the canal.

Hero Updates

Brigitte

Shield Bash

Cone angle reduced from 90 to 60

Developer Comments: When fighting against Brigitte, it often felt like Shield Bash was able to hit players who felt like they were out of its range and should have dodged it. On the flip side, when playing as Brigitte sometimes players would hit the wrong enemy in the middle of a fight. With the cone being reduced, the ability is more accurate to its visual representation.

Genji

Deflect

Hitbox size has been reduced

Developer Comments: The hitbox on Genji’s Deflect was big enough that it would sometimes reflect projectiles that were pretty far away from him. We’ve tightened up the hitbox, which should solve this problem while still fully protecting him from projectiles that would hit him from the front.

Hanzo

Storm Bow

Projectile speed increased from 85 to 100

Sonic Arrow

Cooldown decreased from 20 seconds to 12 seconds

Duration decreased from 10 seconds to 6 seconds

Radius decreased from 10 meters to 7 meters

New Abilities

Lunge

Press jump while in the air to leap horizontally

Storm Arrows

Replaces his existing Scatter Arrow ability

Hanzo can now rapidly fire up to 6 arrows that deal reduced damage but are always fired at full power

Developer Comments: The goal of these Hanzo changes is to allow him to have new options and maintain his high damage output, while removing the frustration of fighting against the old Scatter Arrow. Hanzo is now much more mobile with his new Lunge ability, and with the combination of the bow projectile speed increase and the new Storm Arrows ability he can now deal his high damage more consistently than ever before.

Junkrat

Frag Launcher

Projectile size decreased from 0.3 to 0.2

RIP-Tire

Tire movement speed decreased from 13 to 12

Developer Comments: These changes are aimed at lowering some of the most frustrating parts about playing against Junkrat. Decreasing the Frag Launcher’s projectile size means he will have to aim a bit more carefully to land powerful direct hits and slowing the RIP-Tire’s movement speed gives his opponents slightly more time to destroy it before it detonates.

Lúcio

Wall Ride

Wall riding is less likely to be interrupted along a single surface

Can now go around corners (both outside corners, and inside corners) without having to leave the wall

Can now land back on the same wall after leaping away, provided his leap takes him far enough away from the original jumping off point

Added a minimum time that the jump key must be held before Lúcio can ride around corners

Soundwave

No longer consumes ammo

Can now be used while reloading

Developer Comments: Wall Ride has been significantly overhauled to allow it to function more smoothly across more areas of every map. Lúcio players should instantly notice a huge improvement in where and how Wall Ride can be used. In addition, Sonic Amplifier’s Soundwave ability was unnecessarily controlled by both a cooldown and an ammo cost, so we’re removing the ammo cost.

Tracer

Pulse Bomb

Max damage decreased from 400 to 300

Developer Comments: Pulse Bomb was too good at killing tanks, who can be easy to stick due to their size. This damage reduction makes it less powerful as a tank-destroyer, while keeping it lethal against most other heroes.

Game Browser and Custom Games

General

Mercy’s Regeneration (passive ability) can now be turned off in Custom Game settings

Settings for Hanzo’s Lunge and Storm Arrow abilities can now be found in the Custom Game settings

Bug Fixes

General

Fixed a bug that caused the option “Invite to a Custom Game” to appear while in the Tutorial and Practice Range

Fixed a bug that prevented oxygen tanks and fire extinguishers in spawn rooms from propelling after taking damage

AI

Fixed a bug that prevented training bots from returning to their original position and behavior after being hit with an ability (e.g. Lúcio’s Soundwave)

Fixed a bug that caused bots to use the wrong route when tracking down the player if their target jumped off a ledge

Fixed a bug that caused bots to get stuck on the siege tank in the StarCraft area of Blizzard World

Game Browser and Custom Game

Fixed a bug that caused custom game invites to persist on the invitee’s screen

Heroes

Fixed a bug that prevented Bastion’s Zwing Zwing Zwing voice line from playing if the Null Sector skin was equipped

Fixed a bug that prevented Brigitte from using abilities or Rocket Flail while her Repair Pack was in flight

Fixed a bug that prevented Genji’s melee attack from making sound effects

Fixed a bug that prevented Genji’s golden weapon variant from displaying its golden sheen when some skins were equipped

Fixed a bug that allowed Junkrat’s RIP-TIRE to be immune to the freeze effects of Mei’s Endothermic Blaster

Fixed a bug that caused Junkrat’s RIP-Tire to spawn inside of walls

Fixed a bug that allowed Lúcio to move around while caught in Junkrat’s Steel Trap

Fixed a bug that allowed Lúcio to travel straight up using Wall Ride

Fixed a bug that caused Lúcio to lose movement speed if he landed on a wall from certain angles

Fixed a bug that caused the pig head on the bike to float after the bike had been destroyed in Junkertown

Fixed a bug that allowed players to place turrets and Symmetra’s Teleporter in unintended locations in Junkertown

Upcoming PTR Patch - Brigitte Nerf and Ana Changes

Originally Posted by Blizzard
(Blue Tracker)

Hi. Sorry for not posting in awhile. This is the first time I’ve had time to check the forums all week. As you know, we have some changes patching in to the game today (Rialto PvP, Hanzo Storm Arrow, Brigitte shield adjustment). We also have a PTR deploy that we’re hoping to get up by the end of the week (originally it was scheduled for earlier this week but some bugs came up that were critical to fix so we held on to it). We expected the PTR w/ patch notes to go live so therefore were less concerned with communicating via forums and/or social and were surprised when it did not go live.

The PTR build (when it goes live) has some balance adjustments. The max armor from Brigitte’s ultimate is down from 150 to 100. We’re also discussing some other changes that might make it onto the PTR when it goes live or might go live next week (if at all).

We were trying some interesting things with Ana as well. I’m not sure which of the changes (if any) will make it on to this PTR cycle (some of the changes required new tech so we need to keep testing before rushing something out). Please interpret that as: we’re interested in making some minor improvements to Ana but they may or may not make this PTR cycle. We’re also looking closely and Brigitte and we are reading and appreciative of the feedback.

Dammit, if they ruin my favorite new hero (Brigitte) with nerfs right after launch, like they did the last time I got excited about a healer (Ana), I'm gonna, like, frown at my screen a bunch.

A nerf to her ult is fine, and maybe a SMALL increase to her stun CD (to like 6 seconds, maybe 8 max), but for the rest of her kit, she's fine IMO. She's really strong if you try and fight her 1v1 in melee range. So don't do that. Stand back and shoot her. The only thing that can hit you past 15 feet or so is her rocket flail, which has a CD. Comp-wise, take heroes with splash damage, like Junkrat; bombs that bounce off walls go around her shield, and splash damage beside her hits her health directly, and she can't self-heal if you're not getting close enough for her to melee.

She's like Bastion, who's only OP if you're going to keep walking directly into his line of fire.

Dammit, if they ruin my favorite new hero (Brigitte) with nerfs right after launch, like they did the last time I got excited about a healer (Ana), I'm gonna, like, frown at my screen a bunch.

A nerf to her ult is fine, and maybe a SMALL increase to her stun CD (to like 6 seconds, maybe 8 max), but for the rest of her kit, she's fine IMO. She's really strong if you try and fight her 1v1 in melee range. So don't do that. Stand back and shoot her. The only thing that can hit you past 15 feet or so is her rocket flail, which has a CD. Comp-wise, take heroes with splash damage, like Junkrat; bombs that bounce off walls go around her shield, and splash damage beside her hits her health directly, and she can't self-heal if you're not getting close enough for her to melee.

She's like Bastion, who's only OP if you're going to keep walking directly into his line of fire.

Shes an absolutely cancerous hero. I didn't think they could ever top mccree flash bang > right click nearly deleting tanks, but they did with brigette. She can delete any 200 hp target in under a second and there is zero counter to play to it. If she approachs you, if you turn a corner and she is there, you are immediately dead. Just like mccree flash bang used to be.

I hope they bury her damage, such a retarded hero.

This without even mentioning the fact that she makes reinhardt useless

Shes an absolutely cancerous hero. I didn't think they could ever top mccree flash bang > right click nearly deleting tanks, but they did with brigette. She can delete any 200 hp target in under a second and there is zero counter to play to it. If she approachs you, if you turn a corner and she is there, you are immediately dead. Just like mccree flash bang used to be.

I hope they bury her damage, such a retarded hero.

This without even mentioning the fact that she makes reinhardt useless

Honestly, if they remove the animation-canceling stuff that lets her burst 190 damage in an instant, I'd be okay with that. I'd prefer that over changes to CDs.

While we're at it, same nerf to Genji.

While Reinhardt has problems, he had problems before Brigitte. Her strengths play to his, as teammates. I think Rein needs buffs, but that's a separate issue.

With Brigitte, I just see the old anti-Bastion arguments coming up. "If I charge up an open hallway with Bastion at the far end, he kills me every time! NERF HIM. SO OP." And then people learned "hey, I can just flank him."

Same with Brigitte. Yes, she's strong in melee range. That's a really short range. She has less range than Winston. And less mobility than Winston. Getting into melee with her is a bad idea, so kill her from range. There's almost no map where you're forced into that kind of tight quarters.

Oh yay. So all this time in QP I've been doing with Brigitte to get prepared for using her in the next season is basically wasted time since they seem to be nerfing her to a point where people will likely just scream at you for locking her in.

GG Blizz. Well I guess I'll just uninstall OW again until they release another hero that I find fun. Most of the crying about her being OP seems to just come from shitty Genji/tracer mains who got used to diving face first into enemies and escaping now being massively butthurt they have to learn how to Flank now.

Frankly Brig should of been nerfed before the new season started as the entire reason for waiting to release her was to get all this fixed before she impacted competitive.

If she ulted and you took damage that removed shielding you would continue to replace that armor up to its max and that would still be there for the next enemy wave. So if she ult she gave 150 armor during her ult, if you lost 50 armor during the ult you would get that 50 back by the end of the ult. Now you get 100 and if you lose 25 armor during the ult you end with 75.

It is ridiculous.

If you push a button that finds you a 'random group' and it gives you a random group of people with random skill and random knowledge then you have no right to complain that a 'random group' button did what it was designed to do. The fault lies in your inability to make friends to play with instead of relying on a button designed to be random. It is a 'random group' button, not a 'best of the best' button.

They say, "We are going to wait until new comp season starts to release brigitte so people have time to learn how to use her properly instead of learning in comp..."

Then they release the new hanzo build a week after comp restarts and there are people in comp trying to learn how to use him....

If you push a button that finds you a 'random group' and it gives you a random group of people with random skill and random knowledge then you have no right to complain that a 'random group' button did what it was designed to do. The fault lies in your inability to make friends to play with instead of relying on a button designed to be random. It is a 'random group' button, not a 'best of the best' button.

If she approachs you, if you turn a corner and she is there, you are immediately dead.

No shit ? She's good when on her playground ? That's really unheard off.

People just don't want to learn how to counter a new hero. They cry for OPness when in fact she's just strong at what she does (close range) and really bad at what she can't do (long range damage and splash).

She may be meta defining, and that's fine. Being meta defining doesn't mean being OP. Dive meta doesn't mean Dva, Winston, Tracer or Genji are OP, just that they are (were) good at where the game is (was).

Shacking the meta is a good thing. Brigitte will certainly help long range damage to comeback. More Hanzo, 76, Pharah, Junkrat, McCree.

No shit ? She's good when on her playground ? That's really unheard off.

People just don't want to learn how to counter a new hero. They cry for OPness when in fact she's just strong at what she does (close range) and really bad at what she can't do (long range damage and splash).

It is bad design that a hero is worthless in any situation other than surprising people, and when she does surprise them there is literally zero counterplay.

Blizzard already agrees that zero counterplay heroes are boring, which is why they buried mccrees combo.

Is this the hill you want to die on? because if so, you can argue against Blizzard.

No shit ? She's good when on her playground ? That's really unheard off.

People just don't want to learn how to counter a new hero. They cry for OPness when in fact she's just strong at what she does (close range) and really bad at what she can't do (long range damage and splash).

She may be meta defining, and that's fine. Being meta defining doesn't mean being OP. Dive meta doesn't mean Dva, Winston, Tracer or Genji are OP, just that they are (were) good at where the game is (was).

Shacking the meta is a good thing. Brigitte will certainly help long range damage to comeback. More Hanzo, 76, Pharah, Junkrat, McCree.

Having a new support in the classic Mercy/Zen is also refreshing.

I didn't have as much fun playing support since Ana meta.

It’s bad because she is doing more than just shutting down dive. She also shuts down any tank that tries to make space. I have stopped playing Reaper entirely because you can’t do your job.

It’s also bad that her ult is too good. It continues to build shield for people during a fight even if they lose armor during the ult to max which means it is still full at the next wave attack. If someone is getting shields and takes a helix rocket the ult continues to fill them to 150 armor. Once she is fixed you will not get the full 150, you will have 150 - the rocket damage to the armor. She should never of been put in comp until her fixes were in which was the entire reason for holding her back from last season.

Last edited by DeadmanWalking; 2018-05-04 at 02:11 PM.

If you push a button that finds you a 'random group' and it gives you a random group of people with random skill and random knowledge then you have no right to complain that a 'random group' button did what it was designed to do. The fault lies in your inability to make friends to play with instead of relying on a button designed to be random. It is a 'random group' button, not a 'best of the best' button.

It is bad design that a hero is worthless in any situation other than surprising people, and when she does surprise them there is literally zero counterplay.

Blizzard already agrees that zero counterplay heroes are boring, which is why they buried mccrees combo.

Is this the hill you want to die on? because if so, you can argue against Blizzard.

There IS counterplay. That's what you're unwilling to admit. Standing back and shooting her is the counterplay.

When you turn a corner and get surprised and whacked to death by the Brigitte you didn't know was there? Well, 1> That's you screwing up, and dying as a result, and 2> how is that functionally different from turning a corner and getting headshot by the Widowmaker, or getting dumped in a pit by Roadhog? If you're positioned such that an enemy can capitalize on it, you have made a mistake. That doesn't mean you could necessarily have predicted that mistake, but it isn't a problem of the enemy hero being OP, it's you being in position for them to capitalize on it. And the solution is to not put yourself in that position.

We're right back to the "Bastion is so OP" arguments. Where the community learned "hey, we can just flank him, or shoot him from a distance where his spray makes him ineffective." Or the "Pharah is so OP", where the community learned "hey, we can, like, look up, and shoot her." They're heroes that provide very solid contributions, when the enemy team plays to that hero's strengths, rather than countering them.

And the solution is to counterplay them. If your team has no hitscans and the enemy Pharah is destroying you because nobody can kill her, that isn't because Pharah is OP. It's because your team is being dense and stubborn and refusing to adapt. Same for Brigitte. Outside of a few things (the 190 damage animation-canceling burst, which feels cheaty, and maybe her ult) she's fine. Adapt. You keep getting stunned and worn down by her low damage while her self-healing and shield keep her up? Stop fighting her on her terms. It's like trying to have a shootout in a short hallway with a turret Bastion. You'll lose. It's a stupid tactic. That's their strength.

We're right back to the "Bastion is so OP" arguments. Where the community learned "hey, we can just flank him, or shoot him from a distance where his spray makes him ineffective." Or the "Pharah is so OP", where the community learned "hey, we can, like, look up, and shoot her." They're heroes that provide very solid contributions, when the enemy team plays to that hero's strengths, rather than countering them.

You keep mentioning this, but no one past diamond ever thought either of those 2 heroes were OP. As a high masters / low GM player myself, getting instantly deleted by a widow maker because i turned a corner with walls up is my mistake. Getting instantly deleted by a support simply because i came within 10 yards of her is not something i can reasonably control.

There is a reason they nerfed mccrees one shot ability and made it more skill based requiring a headshot or two. Because it was dumb as fuck and had zero counterplay. Any dribbling retard could flash bang and right click. Any dribbling retard can do Brigette's combo. Not everyone can flick headshot as widowmaker. Your comparisons are weird af and as you keep referring to bastion and pharah being OP, i'm guessing is because you're down in plat or lower in which case, we're fundamentally playing a very different game from one another.

You keep mentioning this, but no one past diamond ever thought either of those 2 heroes were OP. As a high masters / low GM player myself, getting instantly deleted by a widow maker because i turned a corner with walls up is my mistake. Getting instantly deleted by a support simply because i came within 10 yards of her is not something i can reasonably control.

Why is the former reasonable, and not the latter? You've made no argument.

Widowmaker's got far more range on her capacity to erase people. Why is she not the bigger problem?

There is a reason they nerfed mccrees one shot ability and made it more skill based requiring a headshot or two. Because it was dumb as fuck and had zero counterplay. Any dribbling retard could flash bang and right click. Any dribbling retard can do Brigette's combo.

Again, I'm fine with nerfing the 190-damage instant combo.

But getting stunned and then beaten to death in a second or two by Brigitte? That's fine.

Your comparisons are weird af and as you keep referring to bastion and pharah being OP, i'm guessing is because you're down in plat or lower in which case, we're fundamentally playing a very different game from one another.

I'm referring to the player base's outcry of said heroes being OP. I don't think either hero is OP, I also don't think Brigitte is nearly as OP as people are claiming. That one burst combo, sure, nuke that. The idea that she'll interrupt and harass and beat you to death for trying to flank her team? That's what Brigitte does, and it's fine. That she ruins Tracers and Genjis and Reapers who try and backdoor the team? Fine. That's where counterplay comes in.

Why is the former reasonable, and not the latter? You've made no argument.

Widowmaker's got far more range on her capacity to erase people. Why is she not the bigger problem?

Again, I'm fine with nerfing the 190-damage instant combo.

But getting stunned and then beaten to death in a second or two by Brigitte? That's fine.

Widowmaker's one shot is something that a very small % of the playerbase can even do. Unless you're rocking like 15%+ critical hit accuracy, you're probably pretty useless as a widow. Comparing widow, the most precision demanding hero in the game, to brigette, a hero where you can literally do your shield bash with someone visible on your screen like winston's cannon, then follow it up with an auto and a whip shot, is just a terrible comparison. No one is going to buy that comparison.

If you're fine with nerfing her combo, why are you arguing against me?

Widowmaker's one shot is something that a very small % of the playerbase can even do.

I'm a bad Widow and I'm pretty middlin-ranked (gold/plat). I can still headshot people with Widow. My accuracy might not be great and I might miss a bunch, but every time I get that headshot and delete a guy who had no idea I was there, he got killed with no counterplay possible, which was what you're complaining about here.

Unless you're rocking like 15%+ critical hit accuracy, you're probably pretty useless as a widow. Comparing widow, the most precision demanding hero in the game, to brigette, a hero where you can literally do your shield bash with someone visible on your screen like winston's cannon, then follow it up with an auto and a whip shot, is just a terrible comparison. No one is going to buy that comparison.

They've already nerfed her bash angle, which needed fixing.

If you're fine with nerfing her combo, why are you arguing against me?

Because you're not just talking about the combo. You're saying there's "zero counterplay", which isn't accurate. You're complaining that she shuts down other heroes, like Reaper, in melee range. Which is her role.

Because you're not just talking about the combo. You're saying there's "zero counterplay", which isn't accurate. You're complaining that she shuts down other heroes, like Reaper, in melee range. Which is her role.

Because there is absolutely zero counter play to her combo. Once it starts you cannot stop it. Your only course of action is to hope she doesn't notice you. Maybe at gold/plat you can walk in on Brigettes and just steam roll them, but once you get past diamond or so i imagine they stop letting you get away with murder.

There is a reason she is being nerfed. There is a reason they nerfed past one shots that had zero counterplay.